The Dark among the Light
by BIONIC441
Summary: A guardian relies on the light just as much as the light relies on the guardian. But what if their ties were severed? This is what happenens to Jonathan "Bionic" Norman when a little accident has dire consequences. Will the young guardian overcome his struggle, or will the darkness consume him?
1. Chapter 1: The capture

**This is going to be the 1st chapter in this story. I'm not exactly sure where to go with this, so any suggestions you have will be greatly appreciated**.

"_Location: Earth, Cosmodrome_

_Time: 0100 hours_

This patrol was exhausting. I've been out here for 36 hours and there has been nothing more than little things; a dreg squad here, a hive cave there, nothing for a hunter like me to be wasting away at while the rest of my fire team is off fighting the vex on Venus. But I'm happy to not be executed after last weeks incident. Long story short, a little sparrow malfunction caused an entire vanguard encampment to go up in flames, and now I've got guard duty, the most boring job for a guardian like me. My arms tired from holding my scout rifle all day, I decided to stop my patrol for a while and take a quick rest.  
This was my first big mistake today.  
I walked over to what looked like an empty cave, set my rifle down, and sat there for a while. It was then I noticed how tired I was, and eventually dozed off there, leaving myself completely unaware of the ancient vex approaching me from the back.

_Unknown location_  
_Unknown time_  
I awoke to a bright light in my face. I didn't know where I was now, but one thing was for sure; I wasn't on earth anymore. My armor was gone, leaving me with only the thin endo-armor suit. My guns were nowhere to bee seen either. I looked around and started to see some familiar things: A vex gate, a cabal drop ship, parts to a fallen walker.  
_"Why are all these things here?"_  
Before I could ponder this question, I saw it. A vex minotaur major, but this one was different than normal. It had a hunter's cloak across his back, held on by Warlock bonds. He was wearing titan marks as an armband. This one vex is responsible for the murder of countless guardians, and from what I could tell, I was next.  
I began to formulate a plan of escape when the strangest thing happened.  
It spoke to me.  
"You are the child of the light, forgotten and weak. But we see potential in you." It said.  
"Then, everything went black.


	2. Chapter 2: The Lost

**_Location: Venus, Ayakashi region_**

**_Time: 1300 hours_**

The Vex here were tough. VERY tough. They were stronger than usual, faster than usual, and overall better than usual. But there was one thing that tipped us off. They wouldn't leave. They were defending something, and it was our job to find out what it was and destroy it. I looked to my right to see Joker, my only other fire team member here, with Bionic being on patrol duty. With our leader out of the fight, we were having a bit more trouble than usual, but nothing we couldn't handle. As we started to fight through them, I started to sense a pattern in them: Three goblins come in from the back left and keep advancing, 3 hobgoblins go to the roofs and snipe, 5 harpies come down the middle, then a minotaur comes from the right. This cycle continues on and on, quickly expending our ammunition. I was just about to order a retreat, when out of nowhere, they stopped. I don't mean they stopped coming, I mean they just all shut off at once! Not eager to take any chances, we destroyed all the ones out here we could, and proceeded to search the area for anything that they might have been protecting.

The battlefield had nothing on it, but there was a cave off to the side that had an ominous glow coming from inside. As we approached the cave, we saw what it was. A golden Vex timegate, with some form of a camera on the top. Joker laughed, saying "Great, now we have to deal with the Vex AND pimps!"

"Knock it off" I said, "We still have work to do." While saying this, though, I couldn't keep back a small chuckle.

Guardian policy states that all enemy equipment should be destroyed immediately when possible, and be called in for investigation when not. But something told me that this was different. The sudden shut off of the Vex? The gold in the gate? There were just too many questions that needed answers, and this time gate could have the answers. Or death. Probably death.

Joker pulled out his rocket launcher and took aim, but I knocked it out of his hands.

"What the hell man?" he shouted at me. "Lets just shoot this thing and get out of here."

"No" I said. "This timegate is different. Lets investigate a little bit, find out why this one is so different."

We approached it with extreme caution, not knowing what to expect from it. At first, nothing, but when we were within arms reach of it, it happened. A bright flash of light, a violent suction feeling, and then darkness.


	3. Chapter 3

_Location: Earth, Cosmodrome_

_Time: 0100 hours_

When I awoke, It was dark. I stood up from my spot in my cave, but immediately fell back down. Something was off. I felt weak. My body couldn't even hold up the weight of m own armor without extreme struggle. I chalked it up to just a lack of good nutrition lately and tried again to leave. Using the wall as a brace, I slowly made my way to the exit of the cave, struggling all the way. When I reached the exit, I turned around for some reason, I couldn't leave. It's not like anything was holding me back, it's just that my body wouldn't let me leave. As I was deciding to turn back and explore the cave, I saw a familiar red light. The light of a Vex Goblin's eye. I reached for my rifle, but it wasn't there. I began to panic, thinking of all of my options. I had no rifle with me, so I couldn't shoot it, and in my weakened state, I wouldn't be able to run or use my knife effectively. My only option was to hide. I turned off all lights on my armor and dropped, hoping it wouldn't see my grey armor on the dark floor. It worked for a while, and then things went horribly wrong. It started walking towards me, and then stopped, like it lost me. I was beginning to think I was safe, when it turned to me and stared me strait in the face, It's red eye unwavering.

I was going to die right here, and no one would know.


	4. Chapter 4

**Joker's PoV**

_Location: Earth, Alaska_

_Time: 1600 hours_

When we emerged from the portal, one thing was evident. It was COLD.

As our vision cleared, I saw A bright while light. No, everything was bright white. "Snow..." I said, as that was all I could due to my loss of words from our instantaneous travel from the always hot Venus to some mysterious snowy land.

"Earth" Cryptic said. "Probably Alaska due to the snow and the lack of Fallen." O.K., so that solved that problem, but we still needed to know how to get back. Our ships were orbiting Venus when we left, and our sudden disappearance might have caused them to lose us in the endless void of space. I decided to walk around and explore while Cryptic called for our ships. I linked up my radio with him and started walking. I don't know how long I was walking, or how far I went, but my feet were aching and night had fallen on this icy hell. Cryptic radioed in, and told me our problem.

"When we were teleported, our ships auto tracking feature went bezerk to find us. The ships are now in the tower hangar bay receiving repairs. Were gonna be stranded here for the night." He told me.

"I found an old building about a mile back" I told him. "I'll send you the coordinates now. You should head here for some shelter before it gets dangerous out there."

"I'll be there in about an hour." he said, and then we went silent.

I began the trek back to the old building, ignoring the cold as any guardian would.

_Its our job to suffer like this. _I thought. _We suffer so that others don't have to._

It was a short distance by guardian standards, but with the heavy snowfall and the intense cold, it was definitely not easy.

When I arrived, I began to search for any useful supplies. Times like this were moments when Bionic would be really useful. As a hunter, he learned other ways to use materials to make up for what he lacked in strength and light manipulation, and he was the best at what he did. He once started an old interceptor with just a knife and some pencils. I never said it ran very well, but hell, the thing was missing the entire bottom, and he still got it to run.

I found some wooden planks on the back wall, and some ripped curtains over a window in the front. I took two of the boards and the curtain and made a small cot._ At least I wont be sleeping on the floor now _I thought.

I went back to looking around, and saw that this building had a self-sustaining energy supply. There was a crank powered generator in the back, which was hooked up directly beneath the circuit breaker. I grabbed the crank and attempted to turn it. Over the centuries it had been here, it had locked itself into it's position, refusing to budge. I didn't want to break it so I just walked away from it. I could always come back to it later.

I decided that I had searched enough for now, and headed for the entrance to wait for Cryptic. A bit of solar light couldn't hurt right now, right?


	5. Chapter 5

**Bionic's PoV**

_Location: Earth, Cosmodrome_

_Time: 0115 hours_

The goblin was staring me down, but not moving. If not for its eye and core, I would have thought it dead. I looked closer at it, and noticed it had my scout rifle in it's hands, but not pointed at me. No, instead, it had the gun against its chest, like a soldier awaiting it's orders.

I began to inch away from it to avoid any quick movements. I began feeling my strength come back, and started to pick up my pace. Still prone on the floor, I continued using my arms to push myself away, out of the cave, and into the open. Once outside, I stood up and ran to the outside wall for cover. That goblin was waiting for something with my rifle, and I needed it back.

I radioed the area in search of any other guardians who could help.

"Attention! Are there any guardians available for assist in the area?" I said into the mic "I'm weaponless and near hostel forces."

"Hello, guardian" I heard in response. "I have your current location and am about 10 minuets out. Hold your position until I arrive, O.K.?"

"Got it, holding position." I said.

Great, some back up incoming. I might just survive this.

Or not.

While I was waiting, a group of fallen came walking up. Just a captain, three vandals, and a small handful of shanks, nothing to difficult, except for the fact that my guns were missing.

_I could use my knife _I thought, but immediately shut that thought out. I could take down the shanks and vandals, but the captain? Not a chance.

So my only options were to stick around and hide from them, or to run for my life. While I was thinking this over, I neglected to notice a vandal wander away from the pack. I didn't notice my mistake until it was too late. It spotted me._ So, run it is then._

I took of as fast as I could away from the group as I heard their battle cries coming from behind me. Normally, this would be an easy escape, but with the state I was in, it was a challenge to not get hit by the energy rounds tracking ability.

As I ran, nothing else mattered. Just run now, using the natural speed of a hunter, and worry about the pain later. You can't complain if your dead, right?

When I was spotted, their battle cry had alerted some others, and they were starting to box me in. I turned to the only possible place I could, the cave I woke up in, and ran to it.

The goblin was still there, exactly as it had been, unmoving. Now I had another chance. If I can get the fallen to attack the goblin, I can make a quiet escape and get away. Then it occurred to me.

_Where is that other guardian? It's definitely been longer than the ten minuets he said it would be._

My time was running out. I could hear the vandals heavy footsteps, see their shadows walking into the cave.

But then, the goblin moved.


	6. Chapter 6

**Cryptic's PoV**

When Joker left, things were finally quiet. There was no noise except for the constant winter wind that would chill anyone to the bone, except maybe a sunsinger. Sunsinger's complete mastery over solar light made the manipulation of body temperature easier than reloading my hand cannon, "The Devil You Don't".

I fell to the floor, exhausted, though I would never let anyone else know that. I had the most field time and best gear out of everyone on the team, so I should be the leader, right? I couldn't let them see me in a moment of weakness, or all my credibility for why I am better would be ruined. I'm the one who saved all their lives when we were ambushed on the moon. I'm the one who single handedly held back the fallen while we were researching hive forces on Earth. I'm the one who does all the work, but never get any respect in return.

While I was lost in thought, I began to shiver. The temperature was dropping even more. I pulled out a solar grenade and started a fire with it. Even though I could see pretty well because of my HUD's auto lighting system, I needed to make sure others could see me to, just in case someone came to rescue us from this frozen wasteland, and we can just let it go strait to hell.

I started scanning the radio frequencies for any sign that we wen't alone, but to no avail. There was less life out here than there was on the moon, after we glassed half it in order to slow down hive advancements.

Once I had tried every option I could, I began to research why our ships hadn't come for us yet. It didn't take long to find out the problem. My HUD's GPS display was flashing, showing that I was out of authorized area and into forbidden territory. Well thats just great. Stranded in a no go zone, most likely deemed uninhabitable or un-savable. When we left the authorized area so quickly, our ships had immediately gone haywire when trying to find us and some gyroscopic parts were ruined.

I radioed Joker and told him our problem.

"When we were teleported, our ships auto tracking feature went bezerk to find us. The ships are now in the tower hangar bay receiving repairs. Were gonna be stranded here for the night." I told him.

"I found an old building about a mile back" he said "I'll send you the coordinates now. You should head here for some shelter before it gets dangerous out there."

"I'll be there in an hour." I told him, and then we went silent. If anyone was listening in on our conversations, it would be a bit harder to track us if we were silent.

About an hour and a half later, I arrived at an old city, drowned in snow. The coordinates led to here, but that doesn't mean that they told me the exact building. After about another 10 minutes of searching, I found it.

I saw Joker, standing in the doorway of a building. Well, standing in a loose term. He was more unconscious against a wall, still upright to look like he was patient enough to wait for me.

He never was.

When I arrived, I saw his little handy work. A single cot made out of spare wood. It wasn't strong enough to hold a person, let alone a fully armored titan. While he was still sleeping, I broke the cot and made a small fire with the wood. This would at least give him some warmth, since he had no solar affinity and could very well get frostbite from this expedition.

I began to move him so he was lying down, and then dragged him next to the fire. Fireteam members needed to take care of each other. That is how we survive situations that no one expects we will. Its the way of the hopeful lost, and the way of survival.


	7. Chapter 7

**Bionic's PoV**

_Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit! _Was all I could think at the moment. I was now trapped in between a goblin with my gun and a bunch of angry fallen. This is not going to end well. And then the goblin moved.

First, it was just it's head, scanning the room for anything else. Then, its arms and legs. It moved the gun into a battle ready position, and then walked to the cave entrance. Once the fallen walked around the corner and say the goblin, they stopped. The shock of watching a human run into the cave, and a goblin walk out is a strange sight indeed.

Before anyone could make a move, the goblin moved with speeds even I would be spectacle about, jumping to higher ground and using my scout rifle to begin picking the vandals off. It was amazing to watch, the goblin jumping around like that and fighting like a well-trained hunter. And to top it off, it was my gun that was causing the damage, which made me feel sort of proud of myself, until I realized that I might be next.

I began to back up to the rear wall, hoping to vanish from the goblin's line of sight and, hopefully, his memory. But that was too much to hope for wasn't it. The vex hive mind never forgets anything, and share memories between each other, which means every vex now knows I'm here.

I began to prepare for the worst, the inevitability of my death, as there was no way I would be able to kill something that powerful in my weakened condition. I reached the back wall and crouched down. A hunters stalker ability would be invaluable right now. I just stood there in the corner for a couple of seconds, and then seconds turned into minutes. I was wondering why my abilities were not working, and wondering when the goblin would notice that the guardian he cornered was missing. I was answered by the goblin turning around and walking strait at me. I cursed the traveler for abandoning me at the moment I needed it the most, and began to stand. Maybe I could at least damage it's movement functions to help others stand a better chance of surviving encounters with this monster of metal and death.

I raised my knife and entered a battle stance, ready to die the way every guardian expects to die, in battle. The goblin walked up and stood right in front of me, and than did the last thing I expected.

It kneeled down, offered me my gun, and said "It is done, my lord".

_My lord _I thought, and immediately looked behind me, looking for some massive vex god, ready to sacrifice me to whatever cause they had. But there was nothing behind me but the wall that I had backed into.

I carefully reached forward and took my gun from its hands, which released the rifle to me and then returned to it't sides. It then stood up, pulled a slap rifle out of what appeared to be thin air, and then stood at attention, awaiting its orders.

Very confused, I simply walked away from it. I decided to write up a full report of the mission when I returned to the tower, but for now, I just needed to relax. I checked my HUD for the time, and realized that an hour and twelve minutes had passed. Where was the other guardian that I had contacted? Where was every other guardian that was stationed to patrol here? I could answer neither of these at the moment, but what I did know was that the goblin was following me. A vex, right next to me, but I couldn't bring myself to shoot it. It saved my life back in that cave, and now I couldn't just end his, even if it was artificial or against the guardian code of law to leave any of these things alive and free.

It wasn't the first time this happened, though. I don't believe it happened with the vex before, but guardians have worked with minions of the darkness before, if only for a tactical advantage over others. The cabal are common allies against the vex, and the fallen against the hive, but never has a guardian fought alongside a vex or hive member, as they were thought to be the very essence of evil and hatred. But if that was true, than why am I this goblins "lord"? Why does he worship me like I was his king? I hope I never find out, if only to spare me the horror of being corrupted by the darkness.


	8. Chapter 8

**Joker's PoV**

When I awoke, I realized a few things. First was that I was warm. This meant either day had come or someone had started a fire. Next, was I was no longer in the doorway, or anywhere close to it. Someone, or something had moved me. Then I heard a crash come from behind me. That was enough for me to assume the worst, that I had been attacked over night, and they thought I was dead.

I grabbed my auto rifle from the ledge I had put it on, and pulled the clip off of my belt. A trick I learned in training to prevent the weapon going off in your sleep and killing you, accidentally or by an attacker. I ran to the wall separating me from the intruder, and loaded my rifle. I fitted it into my shoulder, quickly leaned around the corner, and took aim at the only other living thing in the building...Cryptic.

"Dammit man, be more careful!" I shouted at him. "I almost shot you!"

"Check your targets and be prepared for anything, even the potential for friendly fire." He told me. "Besides, your ghost should have notified you that the only other life form in the building was a guardian."

At this, Joker's ghost appeared in front of him. "I tried to tell him, but he was completely comatose until seconds before you knocked over the shelves."

"What were you even doing back here?" Joker asked.

"I was searching for something to make this area noticeable for when the vanguard come to get us." Cryptic replied.

Thats when Cryptic's ghost appeared in front of him. "Oh, thats what you were doing! I thought you were just hungry!" His ghost said. "There is a giant radio tower on the roof of the building. All we have to do is reroute the power and it will light up like Christmas."

Then our ghosts vanished and we set to work rewiring the building. It we looked around for any power cords we could find, pulling them from everything, from some old TV set to what appeared to be some sort of cell phone charger. There was even an electric chair in the back room. I really don't want to know what happened back there.

After we had what we thought was enough cord, we began to connect things. Using that generator I found earlier, we could provide power for the signal lights, but first we would have to connect the two. We ripped the ends off of most of the cords and tied the internal wiring together. It's not a very effective technique for power transfer, but it was all we had at the moment. After all the wires were connected into one long power cord, we began to look for where the power supply for the radio tower was so we could turn it back on and get out of here.

When we found the correct door, I almost wish we hadn't. I was walking around in the hallways when I found a room labeled "TOWER". I called for Cryptic on my radio and said for him to start bringing the cord with him. I then tried to open the door. Nothing. The door was stuck worse than we were out here. I took a few steps back, and charged at the door, hitting it with a shoulder charge. Still nothing. I decided to go all out and smashed it in with a fist of havoc. Th door shattered into tiny metal shards, flying in every direction. And behind it was so many dead bodies, so many human remains, That there was no way this was an accident. I counted 15, no, 16 skeletons in the room, all grouped up in groups of 3 and 4. Some were smaller than others. These were the skeletons of families, with terrified children, all slaughtered here. For what? There was nothing in this building but a broken radio tower, there were no weapons in sight, and there is absolutely no trace of the light here. These people were as defenseless as they could have been, and yet some monsters ended there lives, and with no opposition based on the placement of the bones. I pushed it out of my mind and walked into the room, hoping to find what I was looking for fast so I could leave this place. After about a minute of searching, I found the power supply. a small generator hooked up to the wall, with a control panel labeled "TOWER CONTROLS".

Cryptic walked in, and I could tell he was just as horrified as I was. I called over to him "Hey, bring that cord over here. I found the controls."

When we plugged it in, I knew something had changed. I wasn't quite sure what it was yet, but I had the strangest feeling that things were going to change very soon.


	9. Chapter 9

**Bionic's PoV**

The strange Goblin in front of me was now dormant. I was still in shock at what had just happened, when a strange radio transmission came in. It was classified as HIGH PRIORITY and came in on all channels. But this wasn't from the vanguard, or even the tower. The message was from some strange sender named Roxiung, and only contained four words.

"HE HAS BEEN FOUND"

In addition to the message, there were coordinates. Earth, 56 North, 13 West. I plugged them in, and found what I expected to find. These were my coordinates. So the person who was found was me, but who is this Roxiung person? I did not know, and was quite terrified to find out. One thing was for sure, though. Roxiung was connected to the goblin in some way, and has some line of direct contact with it, as there was no way he could have spoken (If the vex can even speak) with the goblin without me noticing anything.

I decided to take advantage of the goblin in it's dormant state and walked outside of the cave. I was still not at full strength, but I was beginning to get used to this state and was able to move around freely. While I was outside, I saw a few unusual things, but nothing too unusual for what had just happened. There were burn marks all along the ground, as well as a dead fallen captain that I hadn't seen before. But then, something caught the corner of my eye, and shocked me beyond comprehension. There was a legion of cabal soldiers, centurions and everything, walking strait for me. Even stranger, though, was what was beside them. They were flanked on both sides by vex, and behind them were fallen and hive. This was the army of the darkness, and it was heading strait for me.

Then, the rest of the party showed up. About 25 ships flew in, most with 2 or 3 guardians in them. The Vanguard took this seriously and called in everyone they could to fight here. Once they started to drop down and make physical contact with the planet, all hell broke lose. Guardians firing with no clear targets into the mass of hostile forces, while minions of the darkness were all advancing, not showing any signs of stopping. I decided to make a break for the nearest guardian so I could finally end this nightmare. A tall warlock with an auto rifle, ripping through a group of thralls. As I began to get near him, he took cover in a small ditch to reload. He turned to look at me, raising his rifle in my direction in the process, but quickly aiming slightly to my left and fired a short burst into a hive knights head. I slid into the ditch, but tripped halfway down and landed on my face. The warlock quickly grabbed my shoulders, lifted me up off my prone position, and yelled something that sounded like "Are you the one who they were talking about?"

It took me a moment to release what he was asking. I shook the shock out of myself and thought of an answer, but before I could say anything, there was an all to familiar sound. It was the sound of a wire rifle firing. I shouted at him to get down, but it was too late. The bullet came in from one of the hills in the distance and struck the warlock directly in the head. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, because guardians can just be revived by their ghosts, but the darkness had such a strong influence on this area that it didn't matter. He was dead for good before he even fell all the way down. I knelled there in horror, thinking that this man just died trying to save me. I thought about running away, but then thought against it. All these guardians around me, and not one was backing down. They were here to get me out, so I decided it was time to leave.

I looked around and found the three commanders, the vanguard mentors. I took off in their direction at a full sprint, hoping to make it without being shot, and it kind of worked. I made it halfway to the vanguard, but then a minotaur teleported in front of me to block my path. I dove to the side to avoid his punch, which had just formed a crated where I just was, and took off running again. I knew I wasn't going to make it all the way, but I had to try. I began approaching the outpost we had set up, reaching about one hundred and fifty feet away, when I was finally hit. A fallen captain with a shrapnel launcher had seen me and got a little trigger happy. The red hot shrapnel flew from the barrel and hit it's mark. I was hit directly in the back of my right knee. I collapsed to the ground, letting out a cry of pain.

The call was a lucky one, and the hunter vanguard mentor, Cayade 6, turned to see where the shout came from just in time to see a cabal Phalanx touchdown, landing next to where I was on the ground. I knew I was in serious trouble, and Cayade did to. The Phalanx lifted me up off the ground and was just begining to activate his thruster pack, when he suddenly disintegrated into a cloud of solar light. Cayade came running in with a golden gun in his hand, destroying every enemy that came in between him and me. Once he reached me, he stopped and began laying down covering fire while commander Zavala dragged me away from the firefight. I was rapidly losing blood, and the others could tell. I heard muffled shouting and what sounded like a ghost flashing in and out of the visible world. Then a bright light began to shine above my head, reminding me too much of the old stories of how someone would see a similar bright light when they died, but I knew that wasn't what was happening. A guardian never dies. Not like this at least.


End file.
